Four Cases of Fish-bone Foreign Bodies Requiring General Anesthesia for Removal

Abstract

Fish bone foreign bodies in the pharynx are common and can usually be removed on an outpatient basis. However, fish bones in the larynx or the extraluminal digestive tract are rare. We treated four cases in which a fish bone foreign body was found in the larynx or the extraluminal digestive tract. In the first case, a fish bone was found at the larynx (subglottis) in a 2-year-old boy. The second case was a fish bone in the retropharyngeal region which had migrated into the submucosal layer in a 74-year-old man. The third case was a 74-year-old woman with a fish bone puncturing the thyroid gland, resulting in a chronically progressing neck abscess. The forth case was a 61-year-old woman with a fish bone completely lodged in the thyroid gland. The post-operative course was uneventful in all cases. Computed tomography (CT) images were effective for making the diagnoses.